gcls_WFP_971

"This made the Tommies feel very awkward, though, of course, technically it was the Navy, and not themselves, who were actually keeping out the food. 'Still you couldn't exactly go blaming it on the men of the Navy. Wotever would young Len blackmore, 'oo was stoker on the 'Invincible,' say, 'im wot teaches a class of kids in Sunday school at 'ome, if 'e was to see the state these young nippers were in? And if 'e came to see that it was 'is own ship wot 'ad kept up the blockade. Well!---the only thing was to give them a taste of proper Christian food once a ady anyhow.'

"So soon it became a daily sight in Cologne, queues of children lining up by a group of Tommies who were handing out a generous share of their rations to them. Every day this occurred until the crowd grew so big that traffic was obstructed and it had to be prohibited. But the British soldier is not a docile creature. He would not give up his new role. The children were told to come along to a different place behind the barracks, where somehow or other the usual distrubution would be managed.

"As I was going down by Botolph Road one day, I passed Mrs. Smith with a letter from her boy in Cologne in her hand. 'Look, Miss, wot my boy says,' she called out and began to read to me: 'Dear Mum, things are something shocking art 'ere. The kids are 'ungry. We feed them a bit, but it's not enough. Can't some of you at 'one get busy?'
"Mrs. Smith got busy. Food was just beginning to appear in plenty in London shops. Eve bars of Fry's chocolate cream were procurable. It was quite a thrilling sight. One could buy butter now, without a coupon, if the cash was available. Rich people could get as much cream as they liked.

[photograph of Cologne from above]

Photograph from European Picture Service

LIKE CHICKS AROUND THEIR MOTHER, CROOKED STREETS AND LOW BUILDING HUDDLE CLOSE TO COLOGNE'S BIG CATHEDRAL

One of Europe's principal east-west railroads crossed the Rhine on the Hohenzollern Bridge and curves into the station behind the Cathedral. A white excursion boat lies at a wharf near the bridge, while farther upstream are moored bathhouses resembling barges. On the right bank is the suburb of Deutz, with Cologne's fair grounds and a series of riverside gardens and popular amusement pars (page 844).

[handwritten note]
after World War I, where British soldiers fed hungry German children.